Give it ten out of 10 for effort, boldness, and even originality  but half-marks at best for the acutely unconvincing way it all comes together.

Give it ten out of 10 for effort, boldness, and even originality  but half-marks at best for the acutely unconvincing way it all comes together.

Rating:
5/10

Running Time: 102 minutes

US Certificate: R UK Certificate: 15

Movie-goers have been treated to all sorts of different time travel vehicles over the years, from the rickety-looking contraption in The Time Machine, to the frighteningly minimalist arrival of a starkers Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, to the iconic DeLorean in Back to the Future. The Jacket, however, is the first flick I can think of where the period-hopping vessel is an item of clothing  and not even a particularly nice item of clothing, such as a well-pressed shirt or perhaps a new pair of chinos. Nope, in The Jacket, if you wish to be projected a decade or so into the future, you need to pull on a straitjacket, take some mind-warping drugs, and climb into a drawer at the local morgue. Given the choice, I reckon Id probably just say no thanks and wait for Doc Emmett Brown to build me a car.

Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) doesnt have that choice though. A Gulf War veteran suffering from periodic black-outs, he ends up committed to an institution for the criminally insane when hes accused of murdering a copper and cant remember otherwise. Its here that he meets the nutty Dr Thomas Becker (Kris Kristofferson), who makes a nightly habit of forcing him into the afore-mentioned death drawer and sitting around drinking coffee whilst our Jack is unwittingly projected 15 years into the future to the year 2007. Its here that our weasel-faced hero meets the trashy-but-kind Jackie (Keira Knightley) and, more significantly, learns that back home in 1992 he only has a few days to live. Suddenly, he faces a race against time to find out how  and why  he snuffs it.

On the face of it, The Jacket might sound like a confusing film, but in fact its quite the opposite. The mind-tangling conundrums normally thrown-up whenever time-travel is involved are never even considered here, and in actual fact the story is about as straight-forward as they come. That, combined with the cold, stark cinematography leaves the film to operate more as a piece of drama  or, at times, a tenuous thriller  than any true sort of sci-fi.

This is a brave, inventive and original piece of film-making, but it doesnt quite work. Despite strong performances from all involved (Brody, Kristofferson and Knightley are joined by Jennifer Jason Leigh and the ever-watchable Daniel Craig), the thought was never far from the back of my mind that this is a story which just doesnt make a great deal of sense. Sure, theres nothing wrong with being open-ended  but there needs to be some sort of hint of explanation or plausibility in order for the film to become accessible, and those are aspects that The Jacket just doesnt have.

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